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Braidwood Journal

The streets were filled with school buses once again this morning (Wednesday), as students in the Reed-Custer School District filtered back into their schools for the start of the 2018-2019 school year.

Among the new faces at Reed-Custer High School are five new staff members, including two new ELA educators, a PE teacher, a math teacher, and a new school social worker.

The new teachers sat down with The Braidwood Journal earlier this week to discuss their plans for the upcoming school year.

Braidwood’s EZ Street has been awaiting some new businesses for quite some time. Now, it looks like a specialty auto shop will move in.

On Aug. 6, the Planning and Zoning Board held a public hearing to rezone a parcel of land inside the subdivision from B-3 to I-1, and divide said parcel. The site will be used for expansion of a current auto body business already located in town.

Western Specialty Vehicles has a current location at the corner of Route 113 and the Frontage Road, in the old Chuck Dzak dealership.

Hundreds of folks came out to Old Smokey City Park on Tuesday, Aug. 7, for the fifth annual National Night Out event.

Braidwood joined with thousands of other communities in the coast to coast event designed to heighten drug prevention and crime awareness, generate support and participation in local anti-crime efforts, and strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships.

A proposal to develop a vacant lot along Main Street into a business was the subject of a contentious planning and zoning hearing on Monday night.

Local builder Tony Altiery is seeking to change the zoning on his property at the northwest corner of Main and Walker Streets from residential to business, to accommodate a 2,200 square foot, one-story office building.

Local leaders have opened the lines of communication for fighting the nation’s opioid crisis.

U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, R-16, hosted a roundtable discussion last week, joining with city and county officials at Braidwood City Hall to brainstorm ideas for fighting the use and abuse of illegal drugs.

"Last year was the first year in history that overdoses exceeded gun deaths in this country,” Kinzinger said during the hour-long discussion held on Aug. 2.

The city of Braidwood is ahead of schedule on road work this summer, taking advantage of some low prices.

Work in multiple city streets is underway, the second round of construction this season for the city.

“We got a break here in Braidwood,” said Mayor Jim Vehrs. “When we started this road project, phase one, we put it out for bid. We opened up the bids, and they came in $280,000 under [the engineer’s estimate]. So, everybody looked at me, and I said put another one together right away.”

During the morning hours of 8/2/2018 Braidwood Police along with DEA arrested 4 suspects for various controlled substance deliveries. Braidwood Police and DEA were assisted by Wilmington Police, Coal City Police, Dwight Police, and Grundy County Sheriff’s Office while executing the arrest warrants. The arrest warrants and charges allege the defendants sold illegal narcotics. The investigation was initiated 7 months ago and Chief Ficarello from Braidwood Police stated he expects more arrests in the following weeks.

More than 200 people interested in operations at Exelon’s Braidwood Station power plant attended a community information night last week, meeting with representatives and learning a little bit about the nuclear power plant in the city’s back yard.

The information session and open house took place on July 25 at the power plant’s training building on Route 53.